Lithuanian Radio and Television

LABANAUSKAS Kęstutis, Vilnius

They shot a volley of machine-gun fire at the walls of the RTV building to scare us, and then they shot at the ground in front of the people. We didn't withdraw. After that my memory is choppy - the only things left are like separate clips from a horror film. I think that the signal for the paratroopers to attack was the shot from the tank which was standing right next to me. The blow from the shot made me half-deaf and diverted my attention. Their attack was like a spring being released. They were well-trained and brutal. I saw a paratrooper's boots brandishing nearby, kicks and blows. The person to the left of me was turning in somersaults. He was writhing from pain. He fell flat on his back onto the hot coals of the bonfire. From this sight I recovered my balance, and along with another man, rushed over to lift up the injured man. He was a slight, middle-aged man, and he was groaning from the blows that he had received. It seemed like he had been shot in the left leg. We carried him to an ambulance on the other side of the street. On the way, I didn't see the RTV building. According to others, the paratroopers on the stairs had been particularly violent. A lot of wounded were being carried from there. While I was carrying someone I noticed a paratrooper climb up like a cat and break a window on the second floor with his tommy gun. Then another man was led over to an ambulance. His clothes had been torn from an explosion (but he had so many layers on that the explosion didn't go all the way through). His face was scorched and covered with soot. It seemed to me that he was in shock and had lost consciousness. I went back and helped carry a wounded person who was covered with blood -he was a tall man, and 2 of his fingers had been separated from his hand by a shot. It was as if they had shot at his hand raised with two fingers forming a symbolic „V". By the way, as I crossed the street, I saw paratroopers with tommy guns in some of the windows. Maybe they were taking aim and firing? Now and then the tanks fired and deafened the people with their thundering noise. You could hear the clattering of windows breaking in the apartment-building on the other side of the street...

Most likely, some of the people were also wounded by falling glass - ironically enough, as these people had moved by the wall to protect themselves.

By the ambulance there was a man who had either come by himself or who had been led there. He was wounded, but he was standing on his own two feet, although he was trembling from the strain and shock. Through his torn trousers you could see that his calf was wounded and bleeding. He told me his surname and asked me to look for his wife Lida, who had stayed on the other side of the street. The paratroopers' barbaric attempts to scare the people and drive them away with gun shots and explosions was supplemented by one more weapon -psychological assault. Muffled by the terrible chaos, the recording of the „National Salvation Committee" began to crow like a nightingale in hell. We heard the hypocritical address to “brothers and sisters" - the people who were being shot at, deafened by explosions, and stunned by violent aggression. I don't know if there could have been a more repulsive mockery. I was really tired, and felt a pain in my heart. I even sat down on the curb of the sidewalk for a few minutes. The paratroopers were still scaring people off. News came from the tower, where there was still shooting going on, about more tragic violence.

As morning was drawing near I joined a group of people who were going to the Supreme Council after being treated to coffee. On the way, I re-created the scenes from that horror film in my head and it encouraged me not to give in - to defend Lithuania or to die together with its disgrace. I cannot imagine how life would be possible with these shameless collaborators who claim to be our saviors...

By the Supreme Council, thousands of people were praying, expressing their determination. Most of the people were sure that an even bigger wave of convul¬sions of this monster could turn up at any moment and claim even worse victims.